About a year ago we adopted a new puppy, named Loki, I didn’t know how much this would change my running.  He had so much energy to burn and I loved the thought of having a running buddy, so we started to go on runs.  As we were out on our runs, I would watch him take in everything he was seeing and smelling.  It dawned on me a few months after we started running that I am so used to the routes that I run that I had stopped looking at the world around me. 

I decided that I needed to slow down, smell the roses and see the beauty that I have been overlooking.  Over the next few runs that we went out on I noticed the way the wind blew, the birds in the trees and the sounds of children laughing. Those were all things I had stopped paying attention to.  I now find myself not worrying about my times I run as much as the beauty around me.  

 I am so grateful for this new lease on running and the amazing running buddy I have for all my runs. Some days when my head is just not in the running game, Loki still pushes me to new levels, I can not imagine not having this little fur friend to run with.   So, the next time you go out on a run I challenge you to slow down and pay attention to the wind on your face, the sounds in the air and just the beauty around you.